Dictation
Voice dictation
Hold Right Option, speak, and let go: Sloth transcribes on your Mac and pastes the text where your cursor is. Double-tap the key to dictate hands-free.
Two ways to dictate
| Mode | How | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| Push to talk | Hold Right ⌥, speak, release to transcribe. | Push to Talk, on by default |
| Hands-free | Double-tap Right ⌥ to start. Tap again to stop. | Hands-Free Mode, on by default |
Press Esc while dictating to cancel.
Change the key in Settings › Shortcuts. Push to talk takes a single modifier key: left or right Command, Option, Control or Shift, or Fn. You can also set how long you need to hold the key before recording starts.
Where the text goes
Sloth pastes the text into the app that has focus. It puts the text on the clipboard, sends Paste, then puts your previous clipboard contents back about half a second later.
Past dictations are listed under Dictations in the main window (⌘1). The menu bar icon's Recent Dictations lets you copy one again. Settings › General › Clear dictation history removes them all.
Models
Dictation uses a speech model on your Mac by default (Local). If you add an OpenAI or OpenRouter key, you can choose that provider instead in Settings › Dictation › Speech recognition; your dictated audio is then sent to it.
Dictionary
Settings › Dictionary holds words Sloth should get right: names, product terms, jargon. Each entry can have a replacement, so a word you say is written the way you want. You can import and export the dictionary as JSON.
Dictionary suggestions is off by default. When on, Sloth briefly reads the text in the focused app after you dictate, spots corrections you made, and suggests dictionary entries. It needs Accessibility.
Highlight and Edit (⌥E)
Highlight text in any app and say how to change it: "make this friendlier", "turn this into bullet points", "translate to German". A language model rewrites the selection and Sloth pastes the result over it. With nothing highlighted, put the cursor in a text field and say what to write; the result is inserted at the cursor.
| How | What happens |
|---|---|
| Tap ⌥E, speak, tap ⌥E again | Hands-free: Sloth listens until the second tap, then applies the edit. |
| Hold ⌥E while you speak, then let go | Push to talk: letting go applies the edit. |
| Esc while listening | Cancels. Nothing is pasted. |
It is on by default. Turn it off, or pick another shortcut, in Settings › Shortcuts. On a Mac with Apple Intelligence turned on (macOS 26 or later), it runs on Apple Intelligence, on your Mac, with nothing to download. Apple's on-device model handles up to about 2,500 highlighted characters and does simpler rewrites. To use another model, change it in Settings › Highlight and Edit: a downloaded model on your Mac (Qwen 3.5 0.8B or Gemma 4) or a provider you have connected, such as ChatGPT, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Ollama or LM Studio. With a hosted provider, the highlighted text and your transcribed instruction are sent to it, plus nearby text from the app if screen context is on.
Sloth will not paste if you switch to another text field or change the selection while it works, or if the model replies with commentary or options instead of finished text. Each edit is saved under Dictations, marked Highlight and Edit.
On a US or British keyboard, ⌥E normally types an accent (é). While Highlight and Edit uses ⌥E, that accent key does not work; choose another shortcut if you need it.
Permissions dictation needs
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Record your voice. |
| Input Monitoring | Notice when you press the dictation key in other apps. |
| Accessibility | Paste the text into other apps. |
Setup asks for each one. If dictation stops working, see Permissions and troubleshooting.